The new VW Passat certainly looks smart. It’s got superior tech and will be an even better company car proposition. As it uses the same engines and architecture as the latest Golf we can also assume that it will be far better to drive than the outgoing car.

The question is how many of us will actually yearn to own one?

Fact is that this sector of the market is in the doldrums in the UK. Mondeo Man is now running around in a car from the class below, an SUV, or something else entirely. In fact, I was shocked to discover that both the Golf or the Focus outsell the ‘Passat’ class on their own. So a Focus outsells the Passat, Mazda 6, Mondeo, Insignia, Peugeot 508 and the rest combined.

Mind you, the ‘mid-sized sedan’ is still a staple of US sales where hundreds of thousands of them are sold and where the domestic makers, Japanese and Koreans dominate the market. Of course, VW also makes and sells its own US-flavoured Passat there.

China too is a huge saloon market and is now the prime destination for this Passat where it will also go under the guise of the VW Magotan.

So cars like the new Passat do have a bright future, even if it’s not here.

I dont mind the restrained style of the Passat, or its competitors. I am far more interested in the mechanicals under the skin than the looks. Autocar have suggested that a V6 petrol engine might be available later, and if this were attached to a manual box it would be the sort of Q car i might well be interested in. Apart from the Insignia, no one else offers a V6 petrol engine any more in these mid sized saloons which is rather sad. I once had a 406 V6 saloon, a truely excellent car, and the V6 Mondeo got a lot of respect too. In times when every press release is about how low the CO2 test results were it would be nice if some car maker made something a bit special for a change

I think you just answered your own question. China! From comments I've seen the US would welcome this version of the car with open wallets. The Made For America Passat is not well regarded, and the new A3, a more upmarket offering, albeit in a different segment, is being very well received.

The Passat, Mondeo etc are too big. They are fine on the motorway for cruising around in, but too big for urban parking spaces in many instances.

It's not that they are not 'desirable' per se, but I doubt this class of cars would exist at all (except perhaps the estates maybe) if they didn't make such better power/Co2 propositions than SUV's for company car user-choosers.

Yep. My 2009 Mk4 Mondeo is massive compared the 1995 MK1 I owned many years ago.

It's a right pain on country lanes and tight car parks - only a couple of months ago I lost a mirror when somebody veered only slightly over the white lines on a B-road. Never would have happened in the original Mondeo.

However, as cars have got bigger on the outside, on the inside they have stayed much the same, hence why I stick with this class. All the same, when the kids have grown up and moved on, I'll happily go for something physically smaller.

The Passat only was truly interesting when VW pushed the Bauhaus design with the arc of the roof bisecting the arcs of the wheelwells back in the 1998-2005 generation. The 1988-1997 (especially the first few years where it had no grille) was more of a sideshow freak. Everything else on either side of those two generations has just been there. However, saloons are seldom as compelling as their coupe/drophead breathren and that is why the values for these and their paucity in comparison to the other bodystyles after 20-30 years is the way it is. Theirs is not the life of glamour.